RELATED ARTICLES

Copper exchange traded funds look tarnished, with copper futures experiencing their worst daily decline in over two years on fears that China, the world’s largest consumer of industrial metals, will cut demand.

“You have a lot of fear in the market right now,” Tom Power, a senior market strategist at RJO Futures, said in the article. “The potential for more default is really what’s pushing the market. The market seems to be poised for another move lower.”

The default scare comes amid broader concerns about a slowdown in industrial metal demand from China, which makes up 40% of the world’s copper demand, reports Ira Iosebashvili for the Wall Street Journal. China’s manufacturing sector slowed to a seven-month low in February.